The photograph below is a bit ambiguous, although it probably was not meant to be.  What exactly is going on with the two people’s legs?  It looks like the person facing the camera is wearing long white shorts… or is she?

Did you figure it out?

As the camera moves, the dragon’s head appears to follow it.  Whether the camera moves side to side or up and down, the eyes always seem to move to look directly at the camera.

The video reveals how the illusion works.  Your mind makes the assumption that the dragon head is shaped one way when in reality it is shaped very different.  The unique folds are revealed when the dragon is viewed from a distance far enough to break the effect of the illusion.  The original version of this illusion was created by the late magician Jerry Andrus.

If you would like to try this illusion on your own, print out this template and grab a pair of scissors.

Remember the “twisting neck” scene from 1973’s Exorcist movie?  The “Exorcist illusion” provides a similarly creepy effect.  It is a variation of the hollow-face illusion.  Although there are no moving parts on the construction, it appears that the torso and face rotate in opposite directions.  Watch the following video and see for yourself.

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Skaters appear to come out of the clouds and onto the ice in this surreal landscape from Chow Hon Lam (Flying Mouse).

To see more illustrations from Chow Hon Lam, have a look at Light Robber (one of my favorites) and Ladder Maker.

Take a quick look at the scene below.  Does something seem strange or awkward about it?  The tennis players are normal (i.e., right-side-up), but the rest of the scene has somehow been inverted.  The court and people on the perimeter of the image are upside-down.  This image can be hard to look at as your brain tries to process the scene and make sense of it.

This impossible photo manipulation was created by photographer Michael Kai as part of his “This Side Up” series.  More of his photographs can be viewed on his website at MichaelKai.net.

Why would a home builder construct houses at such an angle?  Surely a leaning house, such as this one, would be somewhat difficult to live in.

To see another house that would be difficult to live in, you might want to revisit Orosz’s Corner House.  This forced persepctive photograph is courtesy of Panoptikum.

David Macdonald created this LEGO version of the Penrose triangle (or impossible triangle) using 2D drawing and painting software.

This work may not be as popular as his Terrace image, but it is always nice to see new interpretations of old illusions.